Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/10/2015

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Our Mistion: To work together to resposibly grow our community, and to provide quality, cost-effective, and efficient government services. CC Work Session Meeting Date: 02/10/2015 Submitted For: Kurt Ulrich, Administrative Services By: Jo Thieling, Administrative Services 2. 3. Information Title: Consider Tinklenberg Group Proposal for Professional Services Contract Extension Purpose/Background: Purpose: Consider a proposal from the Tinklenberg Group for an extension to an existing professional services contract. The purpose of this contract is to advance and promote the construction of improvements within the Trunk Highway 10 corridor within the City, more specifically, to seek funding for the upgrading of BNSF impacted interchanges that occur along Highway 10. Background: The City has worked with the Tinklenberg Group for most of the past decade, with the most recent contract with the Tinklenberg Group a thirty -day contract being approved in January 2014. The contract was awarded for a short-term in order to allow attempts to form a broader coalition of jurisdictions in the north metro area to pursue legislative efforts. Also, the Council's strategic planning session had not yet been scheduled. The City's past efforts in working with Mr. Tinklenberg have yielded a successful conclusion to the $35M Armstrong Project, which has been awarded several grant awards, including a $10M federal (TIGER) grant, a $10M state (CIMS) grant, a $8M bonding allocation from the state, and a $10.2M award from the Counties Transit Investment Board (CTIB), which fully funded the project. Previously, the North Star Rail Station in Ramsey was also a successful effort. Notification: NA Observations/Alternatives: Attached is a proposal from The Tinklenberg Group entitled BNSF Railroad Initiative, dated January, 2015. The proposal is intended to address the City's desire to be active during this time of re -organization at the federal, state, and local level. New elected officials are now taking office and we want to be certain to keep the Ramsey projects in the forefront. The County has formed a Highway 10 working group and is still organizing the regional approach to the Highway 10 effort, and also the new City Council needs to confirm the strategic direction of the City in the next 30-60 days. The City has a new legislator (Representative Whalen), and legislative leaders and the Governor have both emphasizedtransportation as a key issue. In short, this is a good time to continue to build on the success of the Armstrong Interchange, and to let people know that that was just the start of a much larger project. The Highway 10 Council Subcommittee is meeting with Mr. Tinklenberg prior to the next Council meeting and will discuss alternatives for moving forward.